Depending largely on what business type you intend operating and why, especially if you have purposely chosen to run a work-at-home business, is it significant for you to set precise working hours that you have every intention of following to a rigorously strict plan too.
I am quite certain; you will have frequently heard why so many people have already started or are in the earnest process of shortly starting a work-at-home business. The reasons for this fast developing trend are not only many in number but may accordingly vary, depending on choice and personal circumstances. If your intention of starting this business is simply to earn a good living, without all the hassle of working on a nine-to-five job in some organisation that you are not completely sure of being a useful part of, you would definitely need to go around planning your new business with a lot more care compared to someone who happens to be in a business simply because what they are doing is great fun and the earning that comes along is a more than welcome bonus.
Now, Set Your Own Business Hours
Having made up your mind as to what business hours are going to suit you best, strict adherence to the business hours you have free willingly set for your own ease and convenience is probably the next most difficult part of managing your work-at-home business. Some of the issues which you will need to instantly grapple with may include:
- partner demands
- family interruptions
- friends phoning up or dropping in, without prior announcement
- parents requesting your assistance and expecting an instant response
- children requiring prompt action to their last-minute requests or needs
- children back home for holidays and hollering up the place, especially when you most need peace and quiet in order to concentrate on the urgent work at hand
If you take a small pause to think and give this intricate issue a thorough working over prior to starting off on all fours, you are more likely to have the best chances of working out sufficient hours in which you can have maximum concentration and focus on work at hand with the least number of interruptions or incongruities. What must also be significantly noted at this juncture is the fact that since these hours will be of the highest value as far as your business is concerned, it would be the wisest thing to do if you can ensure their availability on a daily basis. You will manage to achieve a lot more in terms of work completed during these limited hours, compared to any other part of your daily routine.
Business Hours that Suit You Most
Some of us may find that getting up at 4am and getting in a good 2 to 3 hours of concentrated work before the rest of the family starts stirring is great. Whereas quite a few others, that too may include a sizable number among us, may prefer to work during the early night hours. They would obviously find nothing disturbing with being regularly observed punching away at the keys of their computer keyboard around midnight or even beyond those hours.
Working at hours that suit you most; can you have it better? That’s just great, isn’t it!
Orienting Business Hours to Your Customers
Yet, before deciding to set your business hours, you will obviously need to pay a little attention to your valuable customers as well. Thus, strictly dependent on exactly what your plans of doing are, you may also become aware of the factor that you are now required to work on a split shift plan through your working hours, in order to efficiently fit everything into its proper place.
Most people prefer a 3-hour working spin in the early morning hours, before venturing out on a short shopping break or whatever it is that they need to do, then returning to work again around 3pm after lunch. This session can again be broken up between then and a break for dinner; giving their minds a rest before starting afresh.
Everyone has a tendency to gradually fall into their own individual routines. Some work-at-home business owners assert that taking breaks to carry out everyday chores around their homes during working hours is not sagacious, but others look at it in a different way. If, for instance, one was to run the washing machine and hang out the laundry when it’s ready, would that be any different from staff that stops twice for coffee or to have a smoke while on duty.
Planning your business hours well in advance gives you a target to work for and in time you will come to notice that everything automatically falls into a desired pattern. If you’ve noticed, we all like to shop on specific days, visit doctors at specific times, get to our hairdressers on spot and so forth. Eventually a very workable pattern begins to take shape; all on its own – so to say!
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